gears

i didn’t realize until i looked at this composition on my computer how much it looked like a series of gears. i can say that the only work they did was to generate hunger among my two boys.

saffrom milk cap mushrooms (sanguin, lactaire) (lactarius deliciosus)

mixed herbs

a pinch of late-season herbs to celebrate, first, the fact that they are still growing on an outdoor terrace in late november, and, second, the fact that i ate hungrily today for the first time after five days of stomach flu. back soon to regularly scheduled mary jo.

november herbs from steve’s kitchen garden

la gastro

i’ve spent the last few days on my back. there are actually lots of fun ways to spend time on your back, but being flattened by gastro-enteritis is not one of them. here in france they just call it “la gastro,” and when you say it, everyone knows exactly what you mean, and what you are going through, or have gone through. it’s just sort of a wasting stomach flu, with stomach pain, nausea, chills and sweats, lots of trips to the bathroom, and aches of body, head, and soul. i am on a cocktail of medications from the local pharmacy that have managed to pull me out of yesterday’s hopeless despair, and though I wouldn’t say I’m on the mend exactly, today it did not get worse, which feels like a step toward recovery. See you tomorrow (I hope).

winter wildflower stems

personal niche vs common ground

i just read a chapter of a book by john mcphee, in which he talks about our ever-shrinking reservoir of common references. he discusses a writing class he conducted in a high school where his granddaughter was a student. there were nineteen students in the class, and he asked them to raise their hands if they knew, or had heard of, a list of names and cultural references. nineteen hands shot up at the mention of time magazine, muhammad ali, denver, mexico, hamlet, and winston churchill. only eighteen knew about sarah palin, omaha, barbra streisand, or rolls royce. and on down the list. fort knox: 15. elizabeth taylor: 11. cassius clay: 8. norman rockwell, truman capote, joan baez: 5. Laurence Olivier: 1. Calabria, Jackie Gleason, Jack Dempsey, George Plimpton, Samuel Johnson, Bob Woodward: 0. in the end he concludes that this shrinking pool of common references is happening, but that it has also always been happening, as the world has gotten more and more complicated, and we have been segregated further and further into our personal niches of likes, dislikes, and areas of knowledge. i don’t have a particular conclusion. on one hand we are losing a method of connecting to each other. on the other hand, there are more and more people able to bring us interesting news from their area of specialty. i think if we stay walled off, this is a bad thing, and if we remain curious and open, it isn’t the worst thing. does it matter how many of you know that these beach stones with holes in them are called hagstones? well, now you know. your turn: share something interesting from your world.

beach rocks with holes in them (aka hagstones)

go team

i don’t really watch sports, and i don’t really have a home team. i love my great lakes region and my country but don’t automatically assume it’s the best place on earth just because i was born there. i mostly want everyone to win. but through five trips to the languedoc, this occitan cross has increasingly grown on me. i don’t respond to knights and crusades and heraldry. i am not particularly religious. but everytime i see this cross now, the symbol of this humble and beautiful place, i think to myself. yes. go team.

occitan cross